Reflective practice and action?

In the model of situational learning presented by Dealtry (2004) , I find myself involved quite regularly in all four categories of learning.

Situation
		Familiar	Unfamiliar
Learning task	Familiar	A A learning task in an area you know well (low risk)	B A familiar learning task but applying it to a new situation (moderate risk)
	Unfamiliar	C An unfamiliar learning task but in a familiar work situation (moderate risk)	D New learning in a new part of the organisation (high risk)

In my case, Box A represents courses of mine that are popular and well established, which customers request on a regular basis. The learning that takes place on/after these events is driven by feedback from participants, which encourage me to consider making small modifications to the way I facilitate the course. Box B learning takes place when one of these familiar and popular courses is booked by a new client. The preparation needed in this case is to research the new context, including interviewing typical course delegates. This research provides material for reflection, which will be converted into modifications to the way that the course is delivered; content, style, duration, assessment etc. Both Box A and Box B are well established routines in my company. Box C is my company's preferred forum for Product Development. We get feedback from our regular market research that there is a potential demand for a 'new' course. Having conducted our research, we would aim to find an existing client who would be willing to partner us in prototyping the event. This means that the only learning that needs to take place is learning about the impact of the new course. Box D is altogether more risky, and would not be my chosen place of learning. However, in order to make that Box as safe as possible, putting a lot of effort (would that be reflection?) into getting to know the context by researching and interviewing the client's business, invariably gives a new course a better chance of success.

The Clegg et al (2002) model of reflective practice in academics has less obvious application in my practice.

	Action	Reflection
Immediate	A Immediate action that follows workshops, often characterised by an instrumentalist approach to instruction	B Reflection-on-action, most usually by experienced practitioners with relevant and immediate opportunities for reflection
Deferred	C Action following reflection does not happen because there is no immediate opportunity to put anything into practice	D Reflection following action is often prompted by formal assessment processes – this also happens after a period of rumination

Reflection takes place in a number of situations; following an event, to respond to a new client need, to respond to competition in the market place, to create a new dynamic in my own business, as a result of fresh research, reading etc. 

Perhaps because my clients are business people, there is a tendency to value tangible ideas, rather than theoretical ones, and whilst many clients require a report at the end of a course or courses, they would expect a series of action recommendations based on our experience. That seems to me to put these reflections in Clegg et al's Boxes B and D. However, in both cases the reflection would result in action, so the separation of these two activities feels forced in my situation.

One other situtation bears consideration; reflection to stimulate action. In my experience, committing to make a presentation or facilitate a course on an unfamiliar subject is a valuable method of forcing myself (or colleagues) seriously to engage in Deep Learning about a subject, and to integrate it into my existing knowledge base. 

Both of these models (Dealtry, 2004 and Clegg et al, 2002) have reflective journals as a key mechanism through which reflection takes place. In my case, summaries of my learning are made, but rarely purely as a learning journal. Much more typical is that the learning is recorded as part of the report given to a client, or appears when the next proposal for a course of a similar type is written for a new client. This may practice may lack academic rigour, but in my experience, it does inform and support the incorporation of my learning into future projects. This enables me to discover whether my reflections had any validity. However, the weakness of this approach means that the drive towards CPD is left to chance.

In creating my e-portfolio for H808, I hope to experiment with creating new routines around reflection that I can incorporate in my professional career.

References

Clegg, S., Tan, J. and Saeidi, S. (2002) ‘Reflecting or acting? Reflective practice and continuing professional development in higher education’ (online), Reflective Practice, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 131–46. Available from: http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623940220129924 (accessed 4th December 2009).
Dealtry, R. (2004) ‘Professional practice: the savvy learner’ (online), Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 16, no. 1/2, pp. 101–109. Available from: http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13665620410521567 (accessed 3rd December 2009).

H808 Core Activity 7.1 Professional Values

Having reviewed the values statements of four very different professional associations (ALT, BRACP, AMED, RAE), some interesting differences in values and focus are evident.

All emphasize, to a greater or lesser extent, the importance of professional being a credit to their association by pushing themselves to be as knowledgeable and wise about their profession as they can be. In some cases this means that professionals have to meet stringent entry standards, and must be prepared to continue their professional development, and to share their knowledge and experience with others in the association.

Of the four, BRACP and RAE have a much stronger emphasis on the service aspects of their duties as professionals (counselling and psychotherapy on the one hand and engineering on the other).

Perhaps because of the intensely personal relationship that a client develops with a counsellor or therapist, there is a heavy focus on the professional relationship with the client and the quality of outcome that the client can expect. Alleviating personal distress and enhancing the quality of relationships between people are explicit examples of this bias. There is also a strong emphasis on a promoting the role and benefit the profession offers to society. Respecting human rights and dignity and striving for the fair and adequate provision of counselling and psychotherapy services are important enough values to be clearly articulated.

The Royal Academy of Engineering launches their statement of ethical principles with a description of the role of the engineer as being to "work to enhance the welfare, health and safety of all whilst paying due regard to the environment and the sustainability of resources." And whilst professionalism and professional development is clearly at the heart of their ethical principles, these qualities are described much more from the perspective of the value and service that these principles provide to society (Professional engineers have a duty to ensure that they acquire and use wisely and faithfully the knowledge and skills needed in their work in the service of others.)

The Association for Management Education and Development, a UK association which is open to anyone operating in the field of organisation development, places much greater emphasis on the context in which their work is operating. Their values identify important elements that undoubtedly have a significant impact on the effectiveness of OD initiatives; the relationships between people and the organisation, change as a key catalyst in development, the contribution of development to the changing world. The skills and knowledge of members is not mentioned, although openness to feedback is.

In the case of ALT values, particular focus is given to the integration of the two key areas of expertise - technology and learning, both of which play a part in the effectiveness of the ALT professional. ("Learning technology is the broad range of communication, information and related technologies that can be used to support learning, teaching and assessment")

That duality of competence may also account for the fact that learning from others outside of their background and specialism is seen as an important value. In the rapidly changing territory which technology inhabits, the emphasis on being up to date with developments and being open to inputs from other professionals seems essential if Learning Technology is to emerge as a viable and relevant profession.
1. A commitment to exploring and understanding the interplay between technology and learning

2. A commitment to keep up to date with new technologies

3. An empathy with and willingness to learn from colleagues from different backgrounds and specialisms

4. A commitment to communicate and disseminate effective practice

Since the profession of Learning Technologists is very embryonic in its evolution, its values and principles are likely to be at a similarly formative stage. However, the lack of client or learner focus in the current value statement would seem to be a significant oversight, as is the absence of any higher purpose in the application of the professionals' skills.

References:

Association for Learning Technology (2006) Documents (online). Available from: http://www.alt.ac.uk/documents.html  (Accessed 30th November 2009)

British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (n.d.) Ethical Framework (online). Available from: http://www.bacp.co.uk/prof_conduct/  (Accessed 3rd December 2009)

Royal Academy of Engineering (2007) Engineering Ethics. Available from: http://www.raeng.org.uk/societygov/engineeringethics/default.htm (Accessed 3rd December 2009)

The Association for Management Education and Development
http://www.amed.org.uk/ (accessed 3rd December 2009),

H808 Activity 6.2 Best Practice Examples: 2

Of the four case studies I looked at, the second most interesting was th Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, (CASTL) Higher Education Program, http://cms.carnegiefoundation.org/gallery_of_tl/supporting_the_process_of_building_and_sharing_knowledge.html
Creating and Nurturing Robust Intellectual Communities

The e-portfolio describes the learning environment in which Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning scholars are able to document and share the progress of their research projects. They describe this workspace as scaffolding for a group of post graduate research students.

Some important principles that would seem to promote and support the learning of these students are:

The Collaborative Workspace serves as an excellent arena for students to showcase their learning. This would be a great example innovation in the design of learning environments.

Much emphasis seems to be given to the use of the snapshot tool. As I understand it, this is a tool which creates a pdf document of an original document or webpage? From the teaching point of view, this seems to be an example of an innovative use of technology to create presentations.

Students are required to give progress reports throughout their project, and this structure must encourage a reflective approach to learning. This could be given as an example of good teaching and learning support.

The fact that each progress report requires the student to respond to a template of open ended and searching questions is an example of an innovation in learning design, which will encourage individual learning and critical thought.

More generally, the posting of these progress reviews in the collaborative workspace creates an environment in which (formal or informal) peer review can thrive. This is an example of the teachers establishing an online community of learners in which learning from other students is potentially as important as learning from traditional academic sources.

Finally, the regular publishing of students research activities also provides the evidence for teachers to assess student progress, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme.

Whilst I would not necessarily see this as a stunning example of best e-learning practice, it does show how a period in which students are doing research can be elevated to a group learning experience and would be a neat device that could be added to many programmes, whether or not they were fully delivered online.

Madeleine

H808 Activity 6.2 Best Practice Examples:1

Elizabeth Barkley: From catastrophe to celebration - an analysis of a curricular transformation
This is a compelling case of an improvement in educational performance, that I would like to nominate it as an example of best practice; it is a general education music course in a community college in  Foothill College, Los Altos, California which was heading for disaster back in the mid 1990s. The course was seeing a progressive reduction in admissions which alarmed and discouraged the teaching staff.

The professor, Elizabeth Barkley set about a fundamental redesign of everything about the course; content, design, delivery, assessment and so on. Over a 6 year period, the changes that were introduced transformed participation levels; from a low point of around 45 enrollments per year registration levels increased by 1638% - from 45 enrollments to 782. Assessment of the extent to which deep learning is being achieved was also very positive. Word of mouth from happy students has contributed to the popularity of the course with new student enrollments, the course becoming one of the most popular on the campus.

I have identified best practice examples using several of the characteristics of excellent teaching from NTFS, referenced by Goodyear et al (2001). 

Innovation in Design and Delivery
The new course makes a priority of student engagement with the material. This was done by looking at the learning outcomes that an adult education general music course should achieve, and then linking that back to music genres that would engage the interest to the students. The solution was to focus on the music the five major ethnic groups resident in the USA. The tradition approach in music education of focusing on largely European, classical repertoire was abandoned.

Ability to organise and present material
Students allowed to choose f2f, electronic, or combinations of both for learning. There was immense flexibility in the combinations that students could choose.

Ability to stimulate independent learing and critical thought
Students are encouraged to take ownership of the creation of their own programme of music learning, taking advantage of the modular approach to delivering the curriculum.

Effective and Sympathetic Guidance of Advancement
The aim was for Authentic Assessment using what Barkley calls backward design. This identifies the deep learning outcomes that are required, and then positions a range of activities through which students can achieve this deep learning, and also demonstrate that they have done so for assessment purposes.

Recognised Commitment to Scholarship
The theoretical underpinning of the new course is documented, and a second e-portfolio continues to analyse the development of scholarly thinking around this innovative new course. Students are encouraged to participate in the compilation of this review portfolio. 

Finally, I found the the format and presentation of this portfolio most inspiring, and it has given me many ideas about how to create my own e-portfolio. A combination of video, audio, photographs and graphics surround the text based artefacts most tastefully.

Madeleine

References
Capturing Change A Tale of Two Portfolios             

Elizabeth Barkley

http://web.mac.com/elizabethbarkley/BarkleyPortfolioPortal/Welcome.html 

Goodyear, P., Salmon, G., Spector, J.M., Steeples, C., Tickner, S., (2001) Competences for Online Teaching: A Special Report, ETR&D, Vol 49. No 1. 2001. pp65-72 ISSN 1042-1629

The Professional Debate

Activity 5.2 encourages us to consider definitions of profession, e-learning, and e-learning professional. I've been trying to get my head around this whole subject, and why it is worth this consideration, and here are some random thoughts.

So just what is a profession? The obvious examples of a profession would be a doctor or a lawyer; probably amongst the longest established professions that exist today. What is characteristic of the status of being a doctor or a lawyer is that you are privvy to knowledge and expertise that has been developed through learning from masters and that this learning is not easily gained. Time, commitment and often sacrifice have been devoted to earning the right to be described as a doctor or a lawyer.

Warrior, in her article, refers to the struggle that has been going on in teaching to establish itself as a respected profession. Progressively over the 20th century, job roles which demand a level of knowledge and expertise that requires commitment and particular expertise have sought to have that status acknowledged. Professional Institutes of all kinds are emerging; IMechE, Institute of Marketing, Institute of Personnel and Development..... and so on. Membership of reputable Professional Institutes is a guarantee of quality: such institutes are therefore concerned with allowing only suitably qualified individuals to join, and to providing members with the wherewithall to keep their professional skillls honed and practiced. As new technology has come onto the scene, IT Professionals have followed the Institutional path; an example of such an institute is the ICCP.

So, the burning question I think we are being challenged to consider is - does a e-learning as a profession deserve a separate professional category? Or do we find ourselves at a point in time when learning professionals have yet to integrate the use of the electronic medium into their normal practice?

Take another professional category - the Purchasing Professional. Anyone wishing to operate in that field today must be familiar with IT systems that enable Supply Chain Management and Enterprise Resource Planning. An awareness of how to use such systems effectively and to incorporate their features and benefits into the Purchasing Function is essential. Is the status of IT in learning any different to that? Is the inherent nature of learning as a profession different to other professions that are incorporating electronic media into their modus operandi?

I wonder what anyone else thinks about this?

H808 Activity 5.2 Professions and Professional Values

My preliminary thoughts around definitions of Profession, E-learning, E-learning professional....

After what has felt like a most unproductive day of reading and digesting input, I return to yesterday's work on what I concluded were the main roles for e-learning professionals in my context:
* Learning Design
* Materials Design
* Learning Environment Design/Management
* Learning Technology
* Course Facilitation
* Coaching/mentoring
* Assessment of Student Learning and Evaluation of Programme Effectiveness
* Staff Development
* Learning Infrastructure Design/Maintenance

These roles are all relevant to a learning professional; someone who has subject matter expertise that is of value to students and who is able to create a context and has the skills and tools to engender effective student learning.

Arguably that definition applies equally to an e-learning professional, but that bald definition would overlook at least three important differences; the remoteness of the relationship between the e-learning professional and the student; the complexity of the electronic medium through which the learning is delivered; the opportunity that electronic media offers to create different relationships with students. Nonetheless, the outcome of e-learning professionalism ought to be the same as a learning professional - effective student learning. So is there a different professional definition? Hmmm.... to be continued;-)

H808 Activity 5.1 E-learning roles

The websites I have visited describe e-learning professionals from two different perspectives; those taking a national/international policy view (EIfEL (European Institute for E-Learning and New Zealand Ministry of Education ), and those taking an institutional or organisational view (Research Center for e-Learning Professional Competency and The Training Foundation). Unsurpringly the former focus much more on policy, infrastructure and management issues, whilst the latter focus on the skillset and competencies needed to deliver e-learning.

In both cases, the start point is assumed to be existing learning and development institutions and staff which require 'conversion' into the use/exploitation of information technology. This is very relevant to my own situation, where my business is keen to develop our existing face to face management training offering to be available in Distance Learning formats. To date, this learning is being provided by staff who have limited experience of operating as learning professionals in an e-learning context. They are, however, subject matter experts in their chosen areas of professionalism.

The e-learning professional roles (derived from the above research) that I believe apply in my own e-learning context are listed below. I have identified what I believe are the main developments that will be needed by the professionals in my context.

* Learning Design

E-learning design has a greater emphasis on constructivist principles and identification of the reflection required to enable deep learning. Designers must develop an understanding how technology/multi media can enable learning interactions to take place.

* Materials Design

Materials are a critical element of e-learning. Rather than just providing content input (which would be typical in the f2f setting), the emphasis should be to promote self directed learning, and prompt questions, connections and debates. Learner independence should be seen as a goal.
* Learning Environment Design/Management

The classroom context in e-learning is very different to f2f, and can only work if the learner chooses to engage actively. Creating the right online environment - building rapport - will be a priority.
* Learning Technology

Build up the team's understanding of the range of technology options (CMC, wikis, podcasting, blogs, e-portfolios, social networking etc) for delivering e-learning. This knowledge must be constantly updated.
* Course Facilitation

More hand's off than in a f2f practice. Encouraging of questions not just delivering content and supervising/debriefs. Less transmission, more discussion and expert 'responder'.
Coaching/mentoring

* The visibility of student reflections provided in the e-learning context enables us to offer much greater student support. Building the right bonds of trust and credibility are essential prerequisites for this relationship to thrive.
* Assessment of Student Learning and Evaluation of Programme Effectiveness

Exploit the opportunities to monitor student learning, such as e-portfolios and online discussions, that are offered in the e-learning context.
* Staff Development

Provide staff with the chance progressively to join in with e-learning delivery (legitimate peripheral participation, Lave and Wenger, 1991) and encourage them to create their own PDP in e-learning practice.
* Learning Infrastructure Design/Maintenance

The learning platforms we will use will be from 3rd party providers.

References:

http://cms.steo.govt.nz/eLearning/Projects/Tertiary+eLearning+Research+Fund.htm (accessed 5 November 2009)Research Center for e-Learning Professional Competency, http://elpco.a2en.aoyama.ac.jp/EN/index.cgi (accessed  6^th November 2009).
The Training Foundation, http://www.trainingfoundation.com/index.asp (accessed 6th November 2009).  

EIfEL (European Institute for E-Learning), http://www.eife-l.org/ (accessed 5 November 2009)
Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991), Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Parcitipation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

New Zealand Ministry of Education (?) ‘Tertiary (e)Learning Research Fund’ (online). Available from: Available from: http://cms.steo.govt.nz/eLearning/Projects/Tertiary+eLearning+Research+Fund.htm (Accessed 5th November 2009)